Easy Livin' in Fiji

After rinsing the gear and a proper shower - I went in search of a nice spot on the covered terrace where I could write and get a bite to eat.



Prince Charming??

The storm clouds were rolling in again and the rain quickly followed. People scurried for cover, but there were a few characters that were happy for the rain. All over the garden frogs appeared basking in the fresh water, hopping and skipping for joy. Ok I may be anthropomorphising there, but that's what it looked like to me!

After a delicious dahl soup for lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering on the beach watching little clams hide in the sand.

At one point I was contemplating the wonders that I had seen that morning when something bumped my hand.

I yelped.

Yes, I admit it, it scared the living bejeezus out of me. (those of you who know me well know that that isn't hard to do anyway)

She was more frightened than me after my yelp and the arm flailing - she almost ran away, but then when I held my hand out to her to show her no harm done she came back.

Dogs are always up for a chin rub or an ear scratching.

We had a nice chat she and I.

I meandered back to the resort and decided to finally use the computer so that you could all join me in this beautiful place.

That night I slept like a log.

Shark Diving - Day 1

I woke up early as usual and quietly got my gear together - my room mate, whom I had met on the bus on the way to Sydney, had been sick on the bus to the resort and had not slept much.

When I was done, I figured I still had some time on my hands before breakfast, so I went in search of the elusive internet. I'd been told that I needed to purchase a card to use the computers here. I asked at the front desk thinking that I would have ample time to at least send word of my safe arrival, before breakfast.

I learned that we don't do things quickly in Fiji. Buying a $12/h internet card took 15 min. Alas that meant no internet time for me, no news for you. Time for breakfast...and then to the boats!

I shan't give you the play-by-play of breakfast (buffet, pretty good), or of the bus ride across the street (literally) to the dive shop (in fairness we all did have a lot of stuff to carry), or of the administration of getting ready to board the boats....except maybe to say that getting into a neoprene wetsuit, when it's hot and humid and your skin is clammy...well, it's not pleasant. Let's get to the good stuff.

The boat took us out about 30 min from shore, to a place they call "the Bistro". We drop in, the water is a comfortable 26 degrees. "Why do you need a wetsuit then?" I hear you ask. Well, underwater your skin, anything pale in colour, looks remarkably like the white belly of a fish. Would you want to look like anything resembling a fish near a shark? No exposed skin is the rule.

We drop to 28m. On the way down we see thousands of hand sized fish flitting about, mostly Sergent - Majors - black and white striped fish, but there are also Moorish Idols and ....geez I really gotta learn the names of more fish!

Then we start to see what we came for, the smooth graceful moves of sharks. At first we see smaller Black Tip Reef sharks, they're about 2 meters long, thin and sleek. Then we see the slightly larger Tawny Nurse sharks with their small mouths and Fu-Manchu mustaches, they are bottom feeders and use their mouths to suck their food out of hiding places instead of chasing it like their other brothers. Lastly, we see the Bull sharks. They are bigger again about 3-5 meters. They're not lean and sleek like the others, they look like the have a hump on their backs and are more barrel chested. And their teeth...jaggedly sticking out in at odd angles. They have a reputation of being mindlessly aggressive. But we don't see that. They check you out as they pass with their strangely cold white eyes.

They are magnificent. We are all mesmerized.

Soon I begin to notice something. One of the Bull sharks has this weird growth on the side of his mouth: its an old hook. His body has tried to incorporate it into its body somehow. There's also a Nurse shark with a big hook through it's nostril - a gross parody of our piercing culture. Yet another trails a long line behind it, the hook still embedded in it's body somewhere. Many have damage to their fins - from fighting with fishing lines, reckons our guide.

Not my photo - someone else from the group took this one

Finally the piece de resistance. We were told not to expect her. She stole 40 kg of fish heads on Monday from the feeders (yeah, there's a reason they don't even try to go for the divers). But remarkably, there she is. A Tiger shark. She's about 5-6 meters long and is darker than the others, you can see the stripes clearly as she glides past. The others back away from her. She is the dominant one here.

  The dive leader tells us later that when she first arrived at the Bistro she had a hook in her mouth. It was fairly new so they decided to take it out...VERY carefully (don't try this at home, kids). Her dorsal fin is missing a fair chunk and looks quite ratty. She may have won the fight with the fisherman, but she now has a permanent reminders of the altercation - just like the others. They have named her Survior.

Too soon the fish heads that the guides have been handing out to attract the sharks are done. The sharks disperse, and it's time for us to leave. None of us wants to, but we will soon be back. Just an hour at the surface.

The hour passes quickly. We are told about the various sharks we saw. We are told some stories about the characters that some of them have - There's even a "special needs" shark who is a bit of spaz. They tell us of the hierarchy in the species that we saw in action moments before. They also tell us that the marine fee we pay goes directly to the village that tends this section of the reef. If there are poachers - the villagers take care of it. The tuna industry that once was a big money maker here nearly wiped out life on the reef here.  When the dive operator first approached the village elders with his idea to re-generate the reef by protecting this area and bringing tourist dollars to help, the elders thought he was mad. "You think people will pay you to swim with sharks? We won't have to pay them??"
The plan seems to be working.

We don't do as deep this second time, only 18m. Again we're mesmerized by these amazing creatures. They've seen their fair share of humans and they like to swim right up to you to size you up....actually they just want to know if you have any fish heads. Not a good idea to reach out and touch one even if they are so close...the shark feeders also hold out their hands, but they have fish heads - you don't. You really don't want to be mistaken for one of those guys.

Once in a while I'd look up and behind me and once in a while I'd see one swimming just above me or behind me. What a privilege I have to be able to do this.

Again the fish heads are gone too quickly, and the sharks disperse. There's a shipwreck nearby and we go for a closer look since we still have air left (air = time) to explore.
I discover this relatively flat bit where the coral has started to grow. This area is teaming with baby coral fish - it's like Finding Nemo...without the clown fish (didn't see any of those).  They were so cute!!

I also saw my first moray eel - his head was the size of both my hands together. They aren't very attractive. Those things freak me out more than the sharks.

Too soon it's time to come up again...to a torrential down pour - at least we won't need a shower!!

 

By the time we reach shore its beautiful and sunny once again. Gotta love the tropics for that!

Fiji Time

I got to bed early so that I could get a good night's sleep.
But there's a big difference between going to bed early and going to sleep early.
That last one was going to be difficult...kinda like Christmas eve when you're 6.

I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep in before my alarm went off at 2:45am. The taxi I had ordered on-line the night before was arriving at 3:30. Time to get a move on.
Hop in the shower; get dressed; organise snacks; double check I have all my gear; make a smoothie for breakfast. Done. Just in time.

At 3:30 I'm at the bottom of my driveway. I'm alone.
At 3:35 I'm still alone. I call. The woman who answers asks me where I want to go. I tell her that I've already booked a taxi for 3:30 and he's not here.
"Oh. Yes, well you know that's not a guaranteed service."
No shit.
"I can re-fresh the request, but if you know the number to another service you can call them"
Thanks for nothing. I call the competitor. It's now 3:45. My bus leaves in 15 min. I tell the guy my story - panic has set in. He sends the call out and in 2 min my cab is there. We make it with 3 min to spare.

And thus begins my journey.

3 1/2 hours on a bus to Sydney. We arrive at the airport at 7:30. Plane leaves at 10:30. Go through the bag check-in process...and now we wait, wandering around the plethora of duty free shopping opportunities. We board the plane. 4 hours of flying until finally we are in Fiji!!!

As I exit the plane I am hit by a wall of humidity, it takes my breath away. When I left Canberra it was 14 degrees - I'm wearing track pants and a long sleeved shirt (I've already taken off my hoodie). All of this immediately sticks to my skin. I need to find a place to drop my pants - stat. I've already taken off my shirt (I had a tank on underneath). But the toilets are after the customs desk. I have to stand in line and wait. And wait.

As soon as I make it past I b-line it to the toilet and remove the offending pants..and socks. I have to wait to get my suitcase before I can take off my running shoes though.

Our dive crew is meeting in the main hall of the small airport (there's a money exchange place and 4 stores). I'm approached by a woman who places a necklace made from small shells around my neck. "Bula!" she says to me, all smiles. It's official now. I'm in Fiji.

However, we still have not reached our final destination. We all pile into a small bus and we are soon on our way again - direction Suva.
The scenery is lush and green, a big differnce from the browns in Australia! After a couple of hours we see the coast. We pass many small villages, kids big and small are playing soccer/football. There are little wooden stands along the road where people sell mangoes, coconuts, eggplant, you name it. Many smile and wave to us as we pass. Night falls quickly and we are still winding our way up and down the hills following the coast.

We arrive around 8, and we are all exhausted. We check in quickly and then meet up again in the dinning room for some dinner.
As I glance at the menu, I can tell that the next 6 days will be interesting: no vegetarian options in the mains. I ask the waitress and she looks over my shoulder to the menu.
"Do you eat fish?"
"No, nothing with a face" I say.
I finally settle for some bruschetta, a salad and a bowl of cassava chips (french fries basically). Well, it's only 6 days...and I'm in Fiji!!!

This night I had no trouble falling asleep. Tomorrow: Shark diving

P.S. I've had to write this in HTML because for some reason the text side of the site won't work on this comuputer! So if it's a bit choppy you know why...I also can't up-load photos. I've also only got an hour so I haven't been able to "refine" as much as I would have liked - sorry. Lastly, I'm sitting on a leather cube, in 32 degree weather with 80+ humidity - I'm sweating buckets.

...and now for something a little bit different

The Out of Office Assistant is on again. 
Tomorrow I'm off to Fiji!

So what's different about me taking off again you ask? 
Well,  first I'm only going for 6 days. 
Secondly, this will be my first dive trip.

Yep, I'm going away for 6 days with a bunch of strangers so that we can hang out underwater with...sharks! COOL! 
...ok, just the shark part is cool.

I got the flyer from my dive club while I was in Paris, and I told myself that I had to go - I mean who DOESN'T want to go diving with sharks? 
Am I right??
Sharks...and FIJI! 
Ken A*

I'm told that the place we're staying has computers and internet access, so I shall endeavour to bring you all with me to paradise. I don't have an underwater camera, but most of the people I'll be going with do, so hopefully I can get some of their great shots.

I started thinking about packing about a week ago, trying to jam a bunch of dive gear into a carry-on; my usual M.O. 

I quickly learned that that was not going to fly (heh heh see what I did there?)

The 3 small piles at the upper left are the only clothes I'm bringing

...there's A LOT of stuff involved in diving. And it ain't small stuff. And it weighs a hell of a lot more than the 7kgs allowed for carry-on.

Okay, so I would have to check my bag. Problem is this stuff wouldn't fit in my backpack, and I don't own a suitcase. 

We have a little wheeled,  hard-sided, carry-on at work that was donated a few years back...perhaps I could borrow that. 

Nope. Still too small.

Dang it.

I ended up borrowing Steve's suitcase. It turns out to be the perfect size for all my stuff. But I gotta say that I'm a little bit mortified that I'm bringing this relative monster for a 6 day trip!

On the left, suitcase for 6 day dive trip.
On the right, pack for 2 months in South America

The alarm is set for 3am. It's 9:30pm. I'm going to bed now. 
Tomorrow I'll be in Fiji.
:D
 ...if it makes you feel any better, there's rain in the forecast 

*hybrid Canuck/Aussie slang combining Fuckin' A (Canada) and Fuckin' Oath aka 'ken oath (Australia).